[noopster]

Congrats ivar on a wonderful car!

I'd checked out the Superb when doing research for my car last year. My budget was 10 lacs, slightly stretchable and eventually settled on a VW Vento AT. I'd gone to the Skoda showroom to check out the Laura and instead fell in love with the Superb.

Eventually decided to save the extra 6 lacs and go for the Vento (over the Laura that is). If nothing else, my next purchase in 5-odd years will have that much extra- say the stretch from a Laura to a Superb!

I am supposed to go TD the Superb in both its petrol avatars- 1.8 TSI and 3.6 v6 (slurrp!). Will do so sometime soon!

[ivar1951]

Folks, my first big shock with the Superb. The car just would not reverse today. I had parked it at the usual space, which is slightly sloped and it just would not budge. Called Krishna Auto and they promptly sent someone to look into the matter. Their engineer says it will have to be taken to their workshop and its probabaly the clutch. But I thought my car did not have a clutch! And its done only 7100 k.m. in less than 16 months -- all self-driven.
Any views? Is the Skoda "horror" story unfolding here too? Luckily, the car is still in the warranty period. But still it's disappointing, isn't it?

[999]

Hi Ivar,
Probably a rat chew. I sincerely hope it is not the famed mechanotronics. I pray for the best. The adding factor to the failures are the humidity and dust in India. Do update the details when you have them.

[anandpadhye]

Well, 16 months means you are in warranty period. So relax.
Will be interesting to see if they repair your DSG or replace it.

As an owner, one would insist on a replacement, but if they are able to repair, it will be a good news overall and the myth that "mechatronics and DSG are not repairable" will be proven wrong.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by ivar1951

Folks, my first big shock with the Superb. The car just would not reverse today. I had parked it at the usual space, which is slightly sloped and it just would not budge. Called Krishna Auto and they promptly sent someone to look into the matter. Their engineer says it will have to be taken to their workshop and its probabaly the clutch. But I thought my car did not have a clutch! And its done only 7100 k.m. in less than 16 months -- all self-driven.
Any views? Is the Skoda "horror" story unfolding here too? Luckily, the car is still in the warranty period. But still it's disappointing, isn't it?

Tough and scary - do keep us posted. The car does have a dual clutch, which is electronically activated (unlike a conventional automatic transmission). But one would have hoped it does not fail so easily.

BTW, do you (or does anyone else) know if one needs to put the DSG into neutral while waiting at signals etc? Is holding the car with the brakes while in D mode the equivalent of riding a clutch in a MT car. No one from Skoda briefed me on this when I bought my car, and I could not find anything in the manual either(not that I have read every word).

[ivar1951]

Thanks for the inputs. The car is going to the workshop on Monday morning. I will share the "diagnosis" then. As an abundant precaution, I have been putting the car in the neutral at traffic light stops.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Hayek

BTW, do you (or does anyone else) know if one needs to put the DSG into neutral while waiting at signals etc? Is holding the car with the brakes while in D mode the equivalent of riding a clutch in a MT car. No one from Skoda briefed me on this when I bought my car, and I could not find anything in the manual either(not that I have read every word).

It is advisable to do so if the stop is more than 20 seconds. Apparently the damage is more to a DSG than a normal manual by keeping it in D and staying on the brake. Of course you can't do this all the time but its better if you know the stop is going to be more than say 20 seconds.

[anandpadhye]

The DSG does not move to N on it's own (after coming to a complete halt)???
Why not?

I had read somewhere that modenr auto transmisstions do that to save brake pads and reduce overall wear and tear...

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Hayek

BTW, do you (or does anyone else) know if one needs to put the DSG into neutral while waiting at signals etc? Is holding the car with the brakes while in D mode the equivalent of riding a clutch in a MT car. No one from Skoda briefed me on this when I bought my car, and I could not find anything in the manual either(not that I have read every word).

Stalling at signals - from what I understand, protective software can delay the message from brake switch to ECU that brakes have been released, allowing car to enter a junction or roundabout on the fuel in the combustion chambers, then momentarily shut off mid-junction.

As for mechatronics, I heard about another Superb whose mechatronic module went kaput over the weekend. It is under warranty but it will take 10 days to get the module in. With the high frequency of failures, they better keep them in stock

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Stalling at signals - from what I understand, protective software can delay the message from brake switch to ECU that brakes have been released, allowing car to enter a junction or roundabout on the fuel in the combustion chambers, then momentarily shut off mid-junction.

Wow, that's news.
I did not see any owner mention that the DSG laura/superb stalls at signals! You are talking about the officially released ECU software that has this bug? Or some beta version? And which car is this?

[ajmat]

Have been reading various reports about DSG equipped VW group cars stalling

[ivar1951]

Well, its the clutch and some electronic devise connected with its functioning. But I am told its not the DSG, whatever that means.

The dealer has sent a report to Skoda and expects a reply by this evening or tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the dealer does not have the part in stock and is checking with its dealerships in other towns if these have it. If not, the car will be with them for a week.

The car had to be loaded on a truck from my house as it would not even go forward.

I'm rally perturbed that a car costing over Rs 20 lakh, driven with care and having done only 7100 km in 16 months develops such a major fault.

[ishlinea7260]

Originally Posted by ivar1951

Well, its the clutch and some electronic devise connected with its functioning. But I am told its not the DSG, whatever that means.

The dealer has sent a report to Skoda and expects a reply by this evening or tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the dealer does not have the part in stock and is checking with its dealerships in other towns if these have it. If not, the car will be with them for a week.

The car had to be loaded on a truck from my house as it would not even go forward.

I'm rally perturbed that a car costing over Rs 20 lakh, driven with care and having done only 7100 km in 16 months develops such a major fault.

Kindly keep us updated.Is there anything one can do to prevent this from happening like , some diagnostic scans at the service center ?
And how has Krishna Skoda been about this whole episode?
Again feeling really bad about the whole episode.
Hope she comes fine and early.

[ivar1951]

Originally Posted by ishlinea7260

Kindly keep us updated.Is there anything one can do to prevent this from happening like , some diagnostic scans at the service center ?

And how has Krishna Skoda been about this whole episode?
Again feeling really bad about the whole episode.
Hope she comes fine and early.

I had driven only 10 km after the first service. Therefore, it is evident that they don't do any scans, etc, to detect possible defects.

So far Krishna has been behaving professionally. Prompt responses. But what alarms me is that no one seems to know why this happened. My gut feeling is that the problem is more electronic than mechanical. I will know more in a few days and I will share it with members.

[ivar1951]

Jitender, the senior engineer at Krishna Auto, the dealer, got back to me this evening. Skoda has given its consent to replace the defective parts: the clutch and the electronic controller. They dispatched the parts today itself which are expected to take at least a week to reach Chandigarh. So we are looking at a minimum of 10 to 12 days. Jitender says they will be opening the gear box only when the parts reach and then he will be in a position to say what went wrong and why.

So far an extremely professional approach of the dealer and Skoda.

But, I don't think I will buy a Skoda car again. Its a pity that carmakers like Honda either overpriced their products or simply starved them of features. If this had not happened, I would have loved to go in for the Accord or the CR-V. When I bought the Superb, the then Accord simply could not match the features that the former offered for the same price. Its a pity that such a wonderful car as the Superb has turned out to be highly unreliable! Talk of heartbreaks!